#civil-rights

#civil-rights

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to join a federal lawsuit accusing the Los Angeles school district of discriminating against white students. At issue is a long-running effort to help disadvantaged students of color in Los Angeles by providing somewhat smaller classes to the vast majority of schools - leaving out campuses with larger numbers of white students. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in January by the 1776 Project Foundation, targets a decades-old effort to combat the harms of segregation

Over seven decades in the public arena, Jackson emerged as one of the most multifaceted figures in American history: a legendary civil rights leader, a knowing and caring defender of the disenfranchised, a vital advocate for voting rights and voter mobilization, a savvy media critic who recognized the importance of challenging narratives that promoted discrimination and division, an essential ally of labor unions,

Our father was a servant leader not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world, the Jackson family said in a statement. We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.

At 84, Minnijean Brown-Trickey says she has "done it all." Long before her work as an anti-racist educator and environmental campaigner in Canada, she demonstrated enormous courage as one of the Little Rock Nine a group of Black teenagers who integrated Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957. Minnijean Brown was 15 years old when she decided that she wanted to attend the all-white school, which was closer to her home, instead of Horace Mann High School

The park will "honor our greatest Americans, including black icons like Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Coretta Scott King, Muhammad Ali, and many others," the action reads.

Fifteen years ago I wrote an essay analyzing how music can empower social change in the wake of the law's failure - When the Law Needs Music, published as part of a Fordham Urban Law Journal symposium on the music of Bob Dylan. My focus there was on a case called NAACP v. Button, where the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment protected the NAACP's legal assistance to individuals for the enforcement of constitutional and civil rights.

A fast-talking Minneapolis native who still lives in the Twin Cities part time, Cook is one of a handful of attorneys who have dropped everything to aid (for free) those caught up in the federal crackdown - protesters, immigrants and detained citizens - too many of whom have found themselves facing deportation, arrest or even been disappeared, at least for a time.

On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew members: commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; payload commander Michael Anderson; mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon. Also on this date: In 1865, abolitionist John S. Rock became the first Black lawyer admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.

With this legislation, all of these existing agreements would be void. The legislation would also prohibit federal agents from using local detention centers for civil immigration enforcement, mass raids or the transportation of detainees, and authorizes New Yorkers to bring state-level civil actions against federal officers who violate their U.S. constitutional rights. Hochul has also proposed legislation to ensure sensitive locations, such as homes, schools and doctors' offices, are protected from civil immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant.

There's a myth in our society that real change requires force, strength, and domination. We celebrate athletes, CEOs, and politicians who crush their opponents. But history tells a different story. Lasting social change has often been triggered by humble people whose weapons were passion, principle, and an unwavering commitment to justice and the truth - not the truth we see on TV or read in print media, but rather the truth that we feel deep inside ourselves.

Laketran and Geauga Transit, both located in northeastern Ohio, will honor the life and legacy of Rosa Parks through a weeklong tribute recognizing her courage and the lasting impact of her actions on civil rights in America. Rosa Parks, born February 4, became a symbol of strength and resistance in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, AL. Her decision helped ignite the Montgomery Bus Boycott and propelled the nation forward in the fight for equality. Today, she is remembered as the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement."

As authoritarianism accelerates - as government-sanctioned violence becomes more overt in immigration enforcement, in policing, in the open deployment of federal force against civilians, and in the steady erosion of civil rights - people are scrambling for reference points. But instead of reckoning with the long and violent architecture of U.S. history, much of this searching collapses into racialized tropes and xenophobic reassurance: This isn't Afghanistan. This isn't Iran or China. This is America. We have rights. This is a democracy. This isn't who we are.